The Signum Quartet performs the Scherzo from South African composer Priaulx Rainier’s Quartet for Strings (1939).
The work features on the ensemble’s latest recording, A Dark Flaring, which comprises a unique programme dedicated to South African composers, born in the 20th century.
Priaulx Rainer was born in Howick, Natal in 1903. She studied at Cape Town’s College of Music before moving to London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she would eventually become professor of composition. Studies with Nadia Boulanger provide traces of French musical ancestry in Rainier’s writing, as well as influences of music from her childhood in Zululand.
The performance was recorded in September 2022, Sendesaal Bremen. It features violinists Florian Donderer and Annette Walther, violist Xandi van Dijk and cellist Thomas Schmitz.
A Dark Flaring is out now on ECM.
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